


Dark Mystery: Cyber Corruption!

by FanficPhoenix



Category: Multi-Fandom, Original Work, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: "Chosen One" Inverted, Action/Adventure, Buddy comedy, Fantasy Violence, Gen, Humor, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 13:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12558280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanficPhoenix/pseuds/FanficPhoenix
Summary: Back before the Hubverse made sense, there were things like... this.One little trans-universal resident was a Pachirisu named Pachirisu, and he was obnoxious and weird in a world that was weird but not really obnoxious. One day, he came across a portal that dragged him into a virtual reality - one structured sort of like a video game. Five levels with a fellow adventurer shouldn't be too hard... right?In the opinion of his Murkrow pal - the one actually putting up with his inane antics - it's HORRIBLE.As this center-of-the-multiverse mess brings forth yet another story, two unwilling partners and a number of allies are forced to journey through to the end - lest they never make it out again...





	1. Into the Overgrowth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((So! This story's a bit odder than most of my other stuff. (Then again, my main fic is a Skylanders/IZ crossover, so who am I to judge?) It's basically a spiffed-up version of an old idea of mine from 2010 - and of course, it takes place in the big originalish-slash-fanfictiony garble that is my mindworld.
> 
> Why'd I write out THIS old mindworld plot, specifically, out of aaaaall the other teeny little plots I could have written down? I... can't remember. Oh well!))

In the older days of the Hubverse, strange mini-adventures were no stranger to its denizens… or at least the denizens of one small bit of the Center Planet. (Past that? No one knew - or cared.) After all, in a perpendicular universe that had denizens from far more worlds than it ought to have had, things were often… odd.

In one such tale, taking place in 2010, it was a moderately decent summer day. The sun was shining, the sky was clear, the trees were vibrant and leafy, the air was windy and warm, and something was about to go horribly wrong.

But really, who would be surprised by then?

 

* * *

 

A small dragon hatchling, about two feet tall, was sitting in front of a TV in the middle of an island-valley-thing. Her scales were a dull swampy green, her underbelly was an orangey-brown, her horns were some sort of pale orange-ish, her wing membranes were maroon, and her eyes were a bright purple. Her gaze was furrowed and bored, with a hint of gradually fading interest.

Her name was Jenny, and she was a hatchling from the parallel universe of a certain Spyro the Dragon. (He was a bit MIA at the moment, but that’s not important right now.) She’d been living in this hub-universe for seven or eight years of her odd little life, and the current sight of the day was nothing out of the ordinary at this point.

The television resembled an old tube set, boxy and brown. It was hooked up to nothing, and had no wires or ports. The dials on the front were greasy, and under them there was a strip of duct tape, labeled with a black sharpie. It’d been found in the garbage dump – her term for the tiny little beach that all sorts of interdimensional refuge tended to wash up on – and since Mark and Isabelle, the sibling dragon duo, were busy with their _own_ little adventure at the moment, only Jenny was left to make sense out of it.

The dragon leaned back, sighed, then jerked to the side and let out a yell.

“ _PEECH!_ ”

In that direction, there was a path between high rocky walls, winding out of view. The walls continued past the path, encircling the area the dragon was in along with multiple other details she didn’t bother to focus on right now. Jenny stared off to her left, waiting for her tiny yellow mouse-monster lackey to come running.

A faint whistling noise came from the sky, gradually growing louder and louder. Jenny gave a glare in its direction, then shuffled out of the way as the source smashed into the ground, sending dirt and shrapnel everywhere. She flicked a shard out of her eyeball in mild annoyance and stared down at the smoldering crater.

“I didn’t mean _you_ , dude.”

Jenny squinted at the white and cyan squirrel-beast before her. If there were any other trans-dimensional residents that she could _truly_ call obnoxious, it would be him. He was nothing but screeching and raving and a bunch of delusions of grandeur; his ego was probably the size of a _whale_. (Or a Wailord, in Pokemon-verse terms.)

“Ohhh MAN, sorry bro!” The Pachirisu, nicknamed Patch, clambered out of the mess, a broken jetpack sliding off of him. “There was this THING, and it did STUFF, and- hey, can I hide out here for a bit?”

“No.”

“Hey, thanks! Ooh, what’s that you got there? TV? Man, TV is great. You gonna watch a tape? Is it like, a GOOD tape?” he rambled, staring _real_ close to the dusty set.

“It doesn’t work, you moron,” she rebutted, trying to bump him out of the way.

“Huh?” Patch shoved the much-irritated dragon out of the way, staring at the words under the dials. “‘Dark Mystery: Cyber Corruption.’ ...That’s like, the coolest name EVER!”

“It’s _stupid_.”

“IT’S SO COOL! Where’d you get this, Jenny? I want one!”

Jenny rolled her eyes and gave him a deadpan stare. “It washed up in the garbage dump. Was on top of a pile of everything else. Really dry, too. ...Eh, I dunno. Take it. I don’t really care.” Hey, _anything_ to pass it off on someone else. She had a whole bunch of nothing she could be doing right now.

Besides, maybe it would explode and kill him or something.

Jenny got up and walked away, heading down the tunnel-path. Patch watched her go, and then his attention darted back to the TV set.

“Thanks, man!” he yelled to no one in particular. “Hey, I’m gonna marathon, like, THE BEST STUFF with this thing! Bring the popcorn, ‘cause this party’s gonna be POPPIN’!”

He jabbed his tiny little nub-hands at the TV to turn it on. When that failed, he jammed it again with a spark of electricity. As it began whirring to life, he whirled around and started playing air guitar and headbanging while screeching Hannah Montana music, like the epitome of cross-verse weirdness he was.

The TV whirred to life.

It let out strange clicks and buzzes and spurted out a large cloud of dust, followed by the screen beginning to light up… and melt. The screen oozed and burbled as it sucked itself inward. Slimy liquid glass swirled in a vortex, descending into an eldritch abyss, while emanating a pulsating purple glow and deep throbbing sounds.

“It’s the beeEEEEEST of BOTH _WORRRRRLDS!!_ ” Patch screamed as he lurched backwards, screaming even louder as the portal finally sucked him in.

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t long – five seconds, to be precise - until the Pachirisu slammed face-first, full-force, into a metallic wall.

The room was small, smooth, and shiny like chrome, with a tiny circular glowing pedestal in the center of the floor, and a skinny hallway opening right next to Patch’s crumpled body.

After a tail-twitch, Patch lifted his head, only to be amazed by the… wherever he was.

“ _Wooooow…_ ” he said, wowed.

Without even stopping to consider anything at all, like _any rational person ever would do_ , he darted off down the shiny hallway.

At the end of the crooked hall, there were no more rooms – just a path into a large clearing. Outside of that final door, all one could see were overgrowth-laden cliffsides and worn-down futuristic buildings, all dangling precariously above a pitch-black abyss. The buildings were still silvery-blue-ish, tall and chromatic, but all sorts of vines coated them and threatened to pull them apart, leaving what was once shimmery and new to now be grimy and old. Even where Patch now stood, the large and imposing metal porch and the tall pillars looming above were nothing more than refuse.

“… _COOOOOL!!_ ” he shouted as loudly as possible, his voice echoing throughout the area.

“Quiet!” hissed an unfamiliar voice from up above.

Patch’s gaze darted around, not once thinking to look up. “Whozzat?!”

As he looked around wildly, a figure finally appeared; descending from up above, its dark wings spread wide and its talons sharp and open, was… a mundane Murkrow, complete with witch’s hat and a big ol’ beak.

“Look, kid, if you keep going on like you are, you’re gonna get the both of us knocked out before you even know it!” the Murkrow hissed again as he landed, keeping his own voice low.

“Oooookaaaayy…” Patch trailed off, totally zoned out.

The exasperated bird stared at him. _Is_ this _what I’ll have to put up with today?_ Murkrow thought.

“Now listen. You’re in a cyberspacial construct world and I’m your assigned follower,” said Murkrow. “It’s all arranged in a series of five levels; clearing all levels to the very end will reset the ‘game’ and purge the world of-”

“Wait, did you say _game_?” Patch piped, finally paying attention.

Murkrow stared at him. … _You’re kidding me._ “Yes; it’s a game,” he said dryly.

“That’s… so… AWESOOOOOOME!!” Patch squee’d, as Murkrow covered his earholes with his wing-hands. Before he could even be scolded again, Patch turned dead-silent as he heard several loud skittering noises coming from down below.

“…Did you hear that?” he finally whispered.

Murkrow palmed his wing to his face. “ _This_ is why I wanted you to be quiet. This level is filled with-”

“ENEMIES!!” Patch screamed as half a dozen large buggish monsters crawled up _en masse_ from below the cliff.

“…Right.” _I’m going to have to guide a total moron to the end in one piece. Great._

Without wasting time, Murkrow slashed the nearest enemy’s head off with a swift Steel Wing attack. As the others crawled closer and closer, he held his wings behind him and began charging up a Shadow Ball shot between his extended feathertips.

 _Zip! Zip!_ Patch was screaming and fleeing up the nearest wall with successive Quick Attack dashes. Murkrow hurled his charged Shadow Ball shot towards one of the bugs, sending it hurtling off the edge, then looked behind him at the squirrel up above.

“Come down here and help!” he yelled, as he dodged a pair of slimy fangs and flew up above. Grabbing the squirrel with his claws, he chucked the screaming Patch at the foes down below, conking another bug on the head and knocking it out cold.

As he got up, Patch shrieked when he saw another foe looming above him. As it lunged down, he used his nubby little arms to Thunder Punch it out of the way. As he tried fleeing again, Murkrow dropped in front of him, charging up another Shadow Ball.

“That’s it! Do more like that!”

As he watched Patch’s look of dread, Murkrow knew he had to act fast.

“Uh… it was awesome!” he lied, trying to provoke the guy’s ego.

“…It WAS! I AM awesome!!” Patch squealed, punching another bug to death as Murkrow finished off the final one. As he stood there in a dramatic pose, beaming, Murkrow landed near him and just stared at him.

“…I can’t believe it,” he finally said. “I’ve only known you for a few minutes and I hate you already. _I don’t hate many people!_ ”

“It’s ‘cause I’m awesome,” Patch fired back.

Murkrow groaned.

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t _too_ hard to get further in the level. Murkrow had his all-encompassing flight as always, and he’d instructed Patch to use Quick Attack to cross the gaps… followed by him having to save the incompetent squirrel _over and over again_. Other than that: smooth-sailing… sorta.

At the moment, Patch stood on a platform at the entrance of a tall ravine. The ravine’s sides were dotted with a series of platforms, all much too far away from each other to jump between.

“Oooh! Whassat do?” Patch asked, as he poked at the vague, rubble-covered form that laid before him.

“It’s the robot we need to clear the level,” Murkrow heaved in the background, as he carried an elongated egg in his talons. “We need to find all five eggs and - _hurk_ – place them on their pillars to access the key to-”

“Yeah, yeaaaah, that’s _boooring_. Get back to me when I can ride the _robot!_ ”

And so Patch sat there, letting an increasingly irritated Murkrow do all the work for him. After minutes of waiting, Patch had zoned out completely – until he saw a shiny red key being dangled in front of him.

“ _You’re welcome_.”

“AWW YEAH!” Patch cheered as he unwittingly bumped Murkrow out of the way. “IT’S ROBOT TIME!”

As he watched Patch look for an entrance hatch and finally clamber into the cockpit, Murkrow made sure to hover as _far_ away as possible. “You’ll need to power up the mech with your electricity-”

The mecha whirred to life, and the ground rumbled as the imposing figure of a saurian robot rose up. It was a deep green, with black and yellow accents, and it had big gangly legs and a long head-crest; even though it looked like it was from something specific, Murkrow didn’t recognize it at all.

“-and don’t fall into the pits!” _If you die from this, then I’ll be stuck with you at level zero until who-knows-who-else comes to save everyone – and I_ really _don’t want that, ever!_

“YEEEEEHAAAW! RIDE ‘EM COWBOY!” came another shrill shriek as the mecha began to lumber forward… closer to the ledge.

“ _JUMP!!_ ” Murkrow screamed as the robot almost toppled over the edge. To his great relief, it indeed jumped across successfully… only to miss the landing on the other side and start clinging and scraping against the ravine wall.

“TO THE RIGHT! _TO THE RIGHT!_ ”

The robot’s stubby arms grabbed onto the ledge, and the bot flipped itself forward… and landed on its back.

“Get up! Go forward!”

The robot rolled over onto its feet, and started lurching directly into the wall.

“NOT THAT FORWARD!”

As Murkrow fretted in anticipation, the robot turned to the right and jumped towards the nearest platform, just barely making the landing.

“Okay!! Just keep going now!”

After a minute – a tense, beak-clenching minute – the robot _finally_ made it to the final platform, leaping from that onto a large rectangular ledge nestled between the tall ravine walls.

As Patch flopped out of the cockpit, he turned around and looked to the worn-out bird standing next to him.

“Well? Was I _awesome_ or what?”

Murkrow punted Patch into the next level’s portal.


	2. Ravines and Arenas

Back at the Hubverse center-planet’s very own Center Island, one of the southern sections was on fire. The walls, the earth, a tiny little bit of the sky – all on fire.

Completely _safe_ fire, of course.

Jenny was lying back in a beach chair, wearing a pair of shades and holding up one of those fancy tanning screens, as the super-tiny farmyard around her burned, _Beyond The Sea_ played on the nearby radio, and some sort of scream could be heard in the distance.

Another figure floated through the windy entrance path, staring blankly at all the sort-of-chaos and then looking down at the chill dragon before her.

“Hey, you know about that TV portal, right?”

Jenny didn’t move. “Nope,” she responded casually.

The smallish pink figure – a Mew – folded her arms a bit. “Well, there’s some sort of liquid portal coming out of that TV, and I’m gonna check it out. You coming?”

Jenny didn’t respond.

“…Okay…” A little iffed, Mew floated back down the path she came through.

Jenny sat there for a second, unmoving; her sunglasses _poofed_ into dust and revealed a wide-eyed expression of _what_.

 

* * *

 

“This is level two,” Murkrow stated, sweeping a wing outward in a moderately dramatic manner, “otherwise known as the Toxic Ravine. As you can see, it is not a ravine. It is a tunnel.”

Before the two of them, there was a massive tunnel that seemed to go on for ages. Blocking the view of the end was a massive cluttering of thick vines, all dangling from the ceiling like upside-down arches. Bringing light to the tunnel was, below the ledge the duo now stood on and below all of the vines, a large chasm full of brightly-glowing toxic purple goo.

“Your goal is to platform across every single hoop of vines and make it through to the end.”

“Pssh! That’s _easy_!” Patch said, zipping forward with a Quick Attack dash and immediately getting tangled up in one vine.

Murkrow sighed and rubbed the side of his face with one wing. “Now, look, kid, this level is incredibly dangerous, and you slipping up could spell disaster for the both of us.”

“What do you mean, _dangerous_?” Patch rebutted, as if trying to push Murkrow. “How is a video game world dangerous?”

“In a game where your real life – and those of others – are on the line? _I’d_ say it’s _pretty serious_.” Murkrow grabbed Patch’s tail and reoriented him on the vine. “You’d best get moving…”

 

* * *

 

There was indeed a journey, but it was incredibly boring and repetitive, as to be expected from a linear level consisting of nothing but vines.

“Use your tail to cling to them, swing and grab the next with your hands, swing and grab the _next_ with your _tail_ -”

“But that would take for-EV-er! Why can’t you carry me to the ennnnd?”

“We’re the same size and you’re too heavy to carry for long. Now keep moving!”

Slowly but surely (and surely impatiently), Patch was making his way towards the end of the tunnel. Every once in a while, he’d start slipping, but Murkrow had anticipated this; he flew under the squirrel, giving him a swift kick in the butt if he started slipping too far.

“Now,” Murkrow started, lowering his voice, “I want you to stay quiet. Something might be lurking in this level, and I _don’t_ want you _alerting it to us_.”

“Huh?”

“…Just… just keep swinging.”

 

* * *

 

Unfortunately for Murkrow, he was completely right.

“Oh no…” he groaned, as he saw a solitary shadow moving in the distance.

“Whaat?”

“I think this level has a boss…”

“Uhh, I think you mean – ME! ‘Course.” Patch bowed as he hung from a vine, looking as ridiculous as ever.

The shadow stopped moving, and its head turned towards the two.

“…We need to get moving. _Fast_ ,” Murkrow hissed.

“Oh, please, schmease.” Patch puffed out his chest in an attempt to look tough. “I can _totally_ handle it.” He pulled himself up onto the vine, only to see a purple blur of incoming winged death shooting towards them, maw open and spurting with bright flames.

“I TAKE IT BACK! I TAKE IT BACK! MAYDAY!! _RETREEEAAAAAT!_ ” he screamed as he tried to flail out of the way, only to get tangled up.

Murkrow squawked and ducked out of the way as the digital monstrosity barreled towards him, burning all the foliage in its way as it skidded along a wall and turned its eyes back at them. Patch’s vines began to burn and fall apart, and Murkrow had to jump down and catch him as he screamed and began to fall. As he looked up, his eyes widened as he saw the sharp and toothy snout already face-to-face with him, the distorted dragon’s yellow eyes bloodshot and intense and its crooked neck rearing back against a skeletal-like purple body.

Murkrow barreled out of the way of the incoming blast of fire.

Panicking, he chucked Patch upwards towards an undamaged grouping of vines, then circled down as fast as he could, whipping back around and slicing at the space dragon’s head with a Steel Wing attack.

The boss glitched, sparked, and simply leaned out of the way.

As Murkrow hurtled forward and turned around to see what was going on, the dragon opened its maw wide, turning slowly and methodically and burning as many vines as could be reached, filling the air with thick digital smoke.

Murkrow ducked down as something equally large slammed into the beast from behind, sending both titans hurtling into the tunnel walls.

As Murkrow grabbed the screamy little squirrel again, hovering in place, he turned back and… saw a robotic copy of the dragon scraping its foe against the mossy stone walls of the ravine-tunnel.

“I… don’t think that’s another boss,” he finally said, dumbfounded, as the mecha-dragon turned around and gave a smugly grin, right before the boss dragon wrapped its tail around the mecha-dragon’s rear legs and yanked back and sent it tumbling downward.

The mecha-dragon dug its claws into the wall, slowing itself to a stop as the boss dragon started to lunge downward. Taking advantage of the distraction, Murkrow lead his shot and launched a Shadow Ball directly into the beast’s eyes, obscuring its vision and sending it tumbling forward blindly just long enough for the mecha-dragon to pounce downward and meteor-spike it into the toxic abyss below.

As Murkrow perched himself onto the vine that Patch clung to, the mecha-dragon was suddenly enveloped in shimmery pastel light, deforming and reshaping itself into a tiny pink jerboa-cat, one with a mechanical apparatus strapped to its chest and back.

“Looks like you needed me,” she said. “It’s a good thing I got this mech-pack from the gear-up room near the entrance.” She tugged on the apparatus’ straps and looked over the duo. “Oh! So _Pachi_ went in here, along with… uh…” It was Mew’s turn to be confused. “Who are you?”

“I’m Murkrow. I’m-”

“He came in, like, _aaaages_ before me, and I’m helping him get to the end. Yeahhh,” Patch butted in with, looking _unreasonably_ smug and sure of himself, then yelped as Murkrow chucked him towards Mew, who caught him with a telekinetic force.

“So you were trying to fight Ridley, huh? Was he real or was he just a fake?” Mew asked.

Murkrow gave a dumbfounded look. “Who?”

“Yeah, man! I was never able to beat him in Smash Bros, y’know?” Patch said back to Mew, completely ignoring the confused bird nearby.

“What?”

“You’ve never played Metroid?”

“No… b-but you haven’t either!”

“ _What_?”

“So where are we going next, anyway?” Mew said, finally looking back to Murkrow. He still looked confused and even exasperated, but he recomposed himself and turned to face the ledge behind him.

“The ledge there has the portal leading to level three, which is a series of arena battles. I can’t participate, but you two can,” he explained.

Mew nodded and gave a double thumbs-up. “Got it,” she said, chucking the screechy Patch onto the end ledge. “Good thing I’m from Orre; double battles are right up my alley.”

“…Orre?”

 

* * *

 

Level three was a large circular arena, raised up in the middle of a dry and dusty dusk-time canyon. A thick wooden bridge lead from the entrance portal down to the arena, but there were no visible exits.

As Mew and Patch headed onto the plateau, Murkrow stood back and watched.

“The arena works in waves. Defeat one wave of enemies and the next spawns. Just keep fighting until they’re all gone.”

“Pssh, I could take on all these enemies aaaall on my own!” Patch proclaimed. “Y’all are just holdin’ me BACK! Am I right, or am I _right_?”

Mew shot him a dirty look.

“You… haven’t even _done_ anything,” Murkrow responded, exasperated yet again.

“Wait, he hasn’t?” Mew perked up.

“He ran from every fight we’ve encountered so far.”

Mew took it all in for a second, snorted a bit, then burst out laughing, reeling back in mid-air.

“H-hey! I’m gonna show all of you, don’t you just wait!” Patch shouted back as Mew kept laughing. “I’m gonna show you what team Isnoshock can reaaaally do!” He struck another pose.

Murkrow stared flatly at Patch. “Isnoshock?”

“Yeah, I like, combined ‘shock’ with ‘isnomnia’, because that’d make for a cool team name.”

“It’s _insom_ \- …never mind.”

The arena rumbled, and a few shadowy figures crawled out of the ground. Mew shapeshifted her tail into a purple beam-sword and held it in her hands, and Patch jumped a bit and started making awkward fist-holding motions.

The first few enemies were… well, there weren’t a lot. Four dark figures in the shape of a Cranidos, a Shieldon, a Bagon, and a Gible stood steady, staring down their two opponents.

Mew’s grip on her weapon faltered a bit. “I don’t think this is a double battle…”

The four foes leapt at them.

Patch blocked with his tail and Mew blocked with her sword. Mew then slipped out of the way; she opened her mouth, shapeshifting a deadly-looking set of Metroid-like fangs, then faced down the Cranidos and unleashed her Mega Drain attack. The shadowy dinosaur shuddered as bubbly green energy slipped out of its body and into Mew; it soon fell to the ground and collapsed into smoke.

Meanwhile, Patch was Thunder Punching the Gible in the face… which did nothing.

“IT’S A GROUND-TYPE!” Murkrow shouted in disbelief. “STOP PUNCHING IT!”

Patch then hit the Gible’s nose with Bite; the bulky dragon responded by squeaking and digging underground.

“Ha! Goes to show ‘em,” Patch said, beaming proudly.

Mew, however, was savvier than that; anticipating a Dig attack, she swept up and around and whisked Patch into the air. As the Gible suddenly lunged out of the ground and Patch started to descend, all in a split second, Mew jabbed Patch with her feet and meteor-smashed him directly onto the Gible’s face, knocking the opponent out.

As she floated in the air, she felt a spout of fire hit her in the leg. She flipped around and saw the Bagon down below spitting Ember attacks at her; she dodged the next few and charged up a Shadow Ball shot, firing it down and hitting the dragon square in the face.

As she did this, the dazed Patch was getting to his feet, only to notice the Shieldon approaching him. He used Bite as it came closer, which… didn’t do much damage.

“Steel resists Dark!” Murkrow shouted.

“ _EVERYTHING DOES!!_ ” Patch screamed back before getting headbutted in the butt.

Mew shoved him out of the way. “You take on Bagon,” she said quickly, then opened her mouth wide and started draining the life out of the shadowy Shieldon.

Patch ran over to the Bagon, disgruntled, and hit it with what would normally be an ineffective Thunder Punch… but the weakened dragon could take no more, and almost immediately dissipated into smoke.

“HA! TAKE _THAT!”_ he proudly yelled at the nothingness.

As the final enemy fell, the arena rumbled as more clambered out of the ground… much more. Aerodactyl, Gabite, Rhydon, and Scyther, all flanking an intimidating Charizard – all of them formed out of shadows, but with a golden glint in their silhouettes.

The Aerodactyl immediately took to the air and grabbed Mew in its claws; as she slipped out of its grasp, it hit her hard with an Iron Head attack, and as she was left dazed, it bit down on her hard with Crunch, the evil energy doing a great deal of damage.

As Mew regained her senses and started to transform into a clone of it, the Rhydon stomped down on the ground and hit the arena with successive Earthquake waves. Scyther and Charizard took to the air to avoid damage, but Patch had to frantically leap over every single wave to avoid certain death.

The Aerodactyl roared as it was greeted by the sight of a doppelganger, and it screeched and fell as Mew turned its own Iron Head attack back on it.

As the large Charizard prepared to spit a Flamethrower stream at the Aero-Mew, it was hit square in the jaw with an Ancient Power shot; Mew may have been weakened heavily, but she wasn’t going down without a fight.

As Gabite and Rhydon continued to assault the Ground-weak Pachirisu, Scyther and the battered Charizard turned their gazes towards the Aero-Mew, who was spamming Agility. She shot another Ancient Power blast at the two of them; although the bat-winged Charizard couldn’t dodge in time and faded quickly, the bug-winged Scyther certainly could, and it zipped towards the vulnerable pterosaur and gouged through her with Night Slash.

In the conscious second she had left, she could feel her body falling apart and being warped to sights unseen.

“ _NO!!_ ” Murkrow screamed as he saw her fall.

Rhydon panted heavily, having worn out all the Earthquake power it had; Gabite was also exhausted from having to jump over every wave, lest it get hurt.

Luckily for Patch, his energy reserves and nimbleness had left him unharmed… but as he looked back and saw that Mew was gone, leaving him with no backup, he gave a desperate look to Murkrow. Before the bird could respond, though, Patch shook off any hint of underperformance or fear (of which he had a _lot_ ) and bolted towards the Scyther with a Quick Attack dash.

The bug-beast awkwardly tried to flail its scythe-arms behind it as Patch clung to its back. Before he could fall off, Patch used Super Fang on one of its wings, cutting it in half, and the bug plummeted to the ground below.

Before Rhydon and Gabite could respond, Patch impulsively flung himself towards them and ping-ponged himself between their heads with a few Quick Attacks, whittling them down somewhat. As all three foes were dazed, Patch used Bite repeatedly on the Gabite, knocking it down for the count.

“Get Rhydon to attack Scyther with a Rock attack!” Murkrow yelled. “It’s your best chance!”

As Rhydon regained its senses, glaring angrily at Patch and smashing its tail against the ground in a threat display, Patch ran and hid behind the Scyther… only to realize that the Scyther was most definitely awake by now.

Murkrow turned away and closed his eyes. _We’re doomed._

“SCYTHER IS MY FRIEND!!” Patch yelled. The bug stared down at him, confused, only to be blasted to pieces from a Rock Blast to the spine. The smog faded, and Patch immediately ran to the side when he saw the enraged Rhydon running straight for him.

A force-field formed around the arena as Rhydon hit the side with a Take Down attack, hurting itself and startling poor Murkrow. Patch ping-ponged against the back of its head again with another Quick Attack.

A few more missed Take Downs and various bite attacks, and Rhydon finally fell to its knees and crumbled.

“A- _HA!_ I AM THE _BEST_ -”

The arena rumbled yet again. Patch turned around; surely, something that hard (or, uh, _totally easy!)_ should have been the last round!

Murkrow knew better.

Two silhouettes, only slightly bigger than him, slunk out of the ground. Both were four-legged winged dragons; the first one was sleeker, with four curved horns, elongated wings, and a long thin tail, while the second one was a bit stockier and shorter, with two thick horns and short round wings.

In Patch’s mind, if it weren’t for the glittery smokiness, they’d look an awful lot like two casual acquaintances of his - Mark and Isabelle.

As the two faced down his unlucky charge, Murkrow took to the air and began frantically looking around the edge of the arena. Surely, the forcefield _must_ have _some_ sort of imperfection, or crack, or _something!_

_…The ground!_

The Isabelle shade stepped back, and the Mark shade fired a stream of electricity at Patch.

“FIRE IT BACK!” Murkrow yelled, as he searched for any spots with Earthquake damage. Patch was hurt at first, albeit not as much as he could have been, but under Murkrow’s command, he swiftly fired the electricity back at the shade.

It wasn’t enough.

Patch leapt out of the way as the Isabelle shade lunged at him – and a good thing he did, as it tried to blast the spot where he’d stood with a green concussive blast, which certainly would have ended him then and there. Patch used Quick Attack on the back of its head, stunning it, and dashed out of the way as the Mark shade jumped at him as well.

As Patch dashed across the arena to avoid the swift male shade, Murkrow had finally found a small sliver between the forcefield dome and the damaged ground that he could squeeze through. He flew back and launched himself towards it, getting only half of his large head through. Now that he was partially inside, though…

He fired a Psychic attack at the dragon duo and flipped both of them over, _hard_.

Patch saw Murkrow, but he didn’t try to pull him in. Instead, he looked… mad?

Patch whacked his tail a few times with his hands, then slammed some sort of tail-based Thunder Punch over the Mark shade’s head.

As he struggled to fit through the crack, Murkrow formed a Shadow Ball within his beak, and as the Isabelle shade even made a glance at his only hope, he shot it directly into it.

Patch let out an irritated wail as Murkrow slapped the two shades back and forth with another Psychic assault, followed by another Shadow Ball directed at the dragons.

Before he knew it, the Mark shade had slipped out of the way and was closing in on him fast.

Before the shade knew it, Murkrow had gotten free, standing tall and swiftly bisecting it with Steel Wing.

As Murkrow finished off the final shade with a Faint Attack and the arena went quiet for good, Patch stormed up to the bird.

“Hey! That was MY spotlight, you jerk!” he spat as he shoved Murkrow back.

Murkrow sputtered in disbelief. “ _Spotlight?!_ That was life-or-death, and you think it’s just a _game?_ ”

“It IS a game! You said so yourself!”

Murkrow ruffled his feathers, glaring daggers at the squirrel. “ _Maybe_ you should _stop caring_ about who pulls off the most impressive scenes and _care more_ about having to travel through a virtual reality construct that _living people are currently imprisoned within!_ ”

Patch went stiff. “…What?”

“Everyone who dies in this world is _stuck here_ until someone _clears_ this awful mess once and for all! _Every single time_ I think someone will finally make it to the end, they fall and I’m sent back to the start and get left picking up the pieces! _This is my entire life!!_ ”

Patch was quiet.

Murkrow took a deep breath, looked behind him to see the newly-generated second bridge and exit portal… and turned back to his accomplice. “Now, you are going to _listen to me_ , and you are _going_ to follow me _into that level_ … and _you will not die on me now._ ”


	3. Fight to the Finish

The chamber before the duo was massive and circular, with beams of light slipping through a crack in the center of the brown rocky ceiling. Pillars towered between the grassy circular ledge along the walls and the ceiling itself, arranged in a regular pattern around the whole room. Below the rounded ledge, there was a steep drop and a crystal-clear pool of water. It was very clearly a boss fight chamber, with whatever lie in wait ready to lunge out of the deep waters down below.

Murkrow stood back and began charging a Shadow Ball shots between his feathers. Patch walked forward and stood there, nubby hands on his hips, puffing his chest out in a confident matter.

That confidence immediately imploded as a massive shadow rose up and up from down below, looming far over him with golden-orange scales and _masses of sharp teeth_.

The duo leapt out of the way as the saurian dragon amalgamate gave an ear-splitting roar and slammed its winged forearms against the ledge.

As the beast started to pull itself further out of its abyss, it spread its pterosaurian arms and two other batlike wings wide, blocking off any avenues of escape and effectively cutting the arena in half. Flapping them furiously as it lurched around, the monster opened its mouth wide and blasted the ledge with a vivid gold stream of liquid fire.

Thinking quickly, Murkrow took to the air and used Psychic to lift Patch up as well, sparing both of them from a grisly fate. A miss wouldn’t deter the beast, though, and it slowly turned its head and sprayed the entire ledge, covering all spaces of ground with burning and boiling magical napalm; there was nowhere to land anymore.

With the monster’s mouth wide open, Murkrow fired his Shadow Ball directly into the beast’s throat.

It did far less than he would’ve hoped.

The monster simply turned to glare at him and spat out another stream of molten fire, which he dodged as fast as he could.

Readying a Steel Wing attack, Murkrow launched himself forward, slashing at the monster along a row of brown spines and down its neck. As the beast roared and reared back, he swerved back around for a second shot, and slashed at the beast’s thick skin again before speeding out of the way of an attack.

As he did this, the dragon had taken notice of the immobile and screechy Patch – an easy kill. Following its gaze, Murkrow beat it to the punch and knocked Patch out of the way before he could fall to the fire.

 _Of_ course _I need the jerk alive_ , he thought.

Grabbing onto Patch with Psychic once more, Murkrow flung the screaming squirrel at the dragon’s back, and Patch made a small scrape as he desperately tried to use Bite to slow himself to a stop. Murkrow followed it up with another Steel Wing hit – with the unintended side effect of punting Patch out of the way again.

Murkrow began charging a Shadow Ball to fire at the monster’s eyes… then watched in horror as it began to pull itself out of its chasm. Previously, only the saurian’s upper body was exposed; now, its entire body was starting to rise up, and already three thick tails had slid up from below and begun to thrash around violently.

One of the tails hit Patch, and Murkrow had to catch him with Psychic before he hit the wall and fell into the golden fire. The lingering psychic auras gave the feeling of something approaching, and Murkrow shot out of the way as dozens of teeth gnashed at where he once hovered.

Murkrow flipped around and fired a Shadow Ball at the monster’s left eye.

The monster reeled back and lurched to the side, only to roar in pain as something sharp and metal-like slashed into its eyes and rendered it blind.

“Use Super Fang to cripple its limbs while you can!” Murkrow yelled out, grabbing Patch with his talons and throwing him at the dragon’s back. As Patch landed, he grabbed on to the upper arm of one batlike wing and used Super Fang on it twice. As the wing shuddered and shook, the beast began to lurch again, but Murkrow flew in the direction of its movements and caught Patch as he was flung off; he threw the squirrel back onto the beast’s back and watched as he crippled the other wing as well.

The monstrous dragon was thrashing back and forth, rougher and faster, making the room rumble and sending the water down below crashing against the sides of the pit.

_The water…_

“...Patch! Electrocute the water!”

Giving him some sort of salute, Patch jumped off the monster’s back… only for Murkrow to grab him again.

“Don’t _jump in!_ It’s a death trap; don’t you play video games?!”

“…Ohh.”

Dodging the three tails as they lashed about, Murkrow flew down below and hovered over the surface of the water. Patch flexed his very tiny knuckles, and, as Murkrow cringed upon realizing this would _probably hurt_ , whapped the surface of the water with a Thunder Punch.

The beast cried out as the entire pit lit up bright yellow.

“Keep doing that until it’s dead!”

As Patch kept on punching, Murkrow charged up several shots of ghostly energy within his beak and several Psychic assaults within his head, and fired it all up at the swiftly-weakening boss, trying to assist with any scratch damage he could.

Looking up and being aware of the monster’s movements also alerted Murkrow to when it stopped moving; before it could crush them and render everything pointless…

“ _QUICK ATTACK!_ ”

He clung to his ally as he was whisked upwards in a sharp _zip_ , and as the duo hovered far above, they both watched as the burnt and blackened monstrosity crumbled to its knees and sank down into the pit, soundly defeated.

The room shook for a moment, the flaming sludge fading and leaving the ledge pristine and undamaged, and then part of the wall crumbled away, revealing a small tunnel with a creek below the ledge and a well-lit grassy tunnel above the ledge.

Everything was unsettlingly quiet.

Patch started to speak. “Sooo, what-”

The room rumbled for a second.

Patch shuddered. “Why did-”

Another quake - slightly stronger but still very brief.

As Murkrow gently dropped Patch before the top tunnel, landing alongside him, he very quietly shushed him. Miraculously, Patch seemed to get the message.

As the two of them headed down the slowly-rising tunnel, sunny light shining down through cracks in the ceiling, Murkrow realized he was shivering.

_Did we just… did we clear level four? No one else has ever…_

_…_

_There’s supposed to be_ five _levels._

 _There’s_ more _._

As the tunnel stopped rising and lead into a small circular chamber, Murkrow could see something pale and rectangular, sitting off to the left. As he got closer, he could see that the sides of the rectangular prism were made of shiny plastic (or at least something digital that looked like plastic plastic) with slightly-transparent sides, all sitting above a shallow puddle of water… and it was packed full of people.

A number of pokemon, a greenish dragon with a crooked neck, a few miscellaneous critters, at least one Buizel and a Cresselia… and _Mew_. All were crammed into this box, all looking desperate to get out.

Two of them struggled to the forefront – a pair of young dragons, lime-green and pink.

Murkrow slapped a wing over Patch’s mouth before he could even gasp dramatically.

He looked over the prison’s surface for any sort of openable hatch, but something caught his eye. He looked up and saw the dragon duo and Mew pointing to the right; Murkrow followed their gesture, and right where they were pointing to, there was a plain rectangular door on the wall.

_Level five…_

As Patch shuddered behind him, Murkrow placed his wing-hand on the doorknob and pulled it open.

 

* * *

 

The stairway on the other side of the door was very plain and mundane, as if it were from an ordinary house. The crackling pale walls and mottled gray floor all lead further down, with the walls on either side being very close together.

_Is level five… some sort of basement?_

Murkrow ruffled his feathers a little, and gestured for Patch to follow him _very closely;_ whatever was going on here, he didn’t trust it.

As the two of them headed lower and lower, the colors of the floor and walls slowly blended together into a solid gray, and the shape of the walls almost seemed to twist…

When they reached the bottom, Murkrow looked out into the room before them. There was an open space in front of them, with angular shapes where furniture should have been, with a smooth glass dome up above showing into a deep silver nothingness. Murkrow walked out towards the center of the room, looking around as Patch leapt up and over the odd structures. Whatever this place was, it didn’t feel right…

On the other side of the room, the bright gray walls twisted around and converged above a dark obsidian shape; at first, Murkrow thought it was a counter or a desk, but something in the back of his mind made him wonder if it was an altar.

Past the shape, there were two paths-

_SLAM!_

Something thick and writhing slammed against the dome, oozing about and pressing what resembled rough limbs against the glass. Eyes began to-

Murkrow grabbed Patch’s hand and bolted across the room, whisking them both towards the altar before the _thing_ could spot them, hearing an oozy _slurk_ as the dome sizzled apart and the abomination slid right in.

Quickly and quietly, Murkrow slipped into the narrow space between the altar and the wall. Once he was firmly in the middle, he gestured violently towards himself as Patch stared in confusion.

Slow and heavy steps grew closer.

Patch finally scrambled in after him, and Murkrow winced as a low ominous droning could be heard behind them.

Whatever was moving around outside, it had turned tail and slowly moved towards the left, around the altar and… down one of the two paths. The paths that must have led to the exit.

It was now that Murkrow realized just how unfamiliar he was with this area.

He’d seen the boss chamber maybe _once_ in his digital life, and most runs ended at the arena or the ravine. But this… Did they have to defeat whatever was out there? Did they have to stop it from reaching the end? Did they have to stealth their way past it? What could they do?

Sure, he could always use what he knew now to guide the next run, but would there ever _be_ a next run? What if it took months, or _years_ , for another player to come along?

He was so lost in his train of thought that he didn’t even notice he was alone.

 _Wait…_ He moved his wing-arm to the side, fumbling around in the empty space.

Patch was gone.

Horrified, Murkrow struggled to turn around, and he used a wing to pull himself up and peer over the edge of the altar. He gasped and almost slipped off the edge when he saw Patch – he was just _standing there_ , in the middle of the platform, looking off towards one of the paths.

 _What are you doing?!_ he mouthed with a hiss as Patch turned around. Patch only pointed off towards the path to their left; Murkrow clambered onto the platform and walked towards the edge, and he just barely saw the nigh-shapeless being lurking beyond that door.

The gears began to turn in Murkrow’s head. He furrowed his eyes and waved his wing in front of Patch, gesturing for him to step back. Holding his wings behind him, he charged up a small Shadow Ball – just small enough to not be heard. He flung it at the other side of the room, and he and Patch ran for the other door as it hit just above the entrance they’d come out of.

The air almost seemed to pulsate and throb as the eldritch mass rushed out of the other doorway.

Murkrow and Patch ran as fast as they could, darting down a massive hallway. The walls looming high above them were a brightly-glowing white, but as Murkrow looked at them, he could see vividly-colored electronic veins running across their surfaces, along with _something_ embedded in the walls in an endlessly-repeating pattern.

It was then that Murkrow realized that this realm didn’t feel eldritch – it felt _unfinished_.

_CLANG!_

“ _Let’s-go-let’s-go!_ ” Patch hissed as he bolted even faster down the hall. Murkrow looked back, and his eyes widened when he saw a mass of sheer darkness gaining on them as the world itself began to shake.

He flew faster and faster as the glow of the hall grew brighter and brighter, until the world was nothing more than a white void. Murkrow almost thought he could see something looming far above them, but he didn’t focus on it – as he came to a massive door that Patch was struggling to open, he whipped his wing and cracked it right open with a Psychic blast.

A loud, horrible noise reverberated far behind them as the two ran through.

There were deep red things hanging on the wall, an ornate pattern on the floor, a low droning _growl_ -

The roars came closer-

Patch ran forward and the pattern collapsed into a watery mass, taking him with it.

It pulsated and swirled like a portal and that was all Murkrow needed to see.

He leapt through as the darkness closed in.

 

* * *

 

A dark-green dragon sat far away from the old TV set, visibly baffled and the tiniest bit worried. Jenny had… well, no ideas on how to deal with it. The fishing rod idea had failed, and… yeah, no, that was her only idea.

She _could_ blow the TV up, but that seemed really counter-productive-

_Thhhzap!_

A strange noise from far above was suddenly followed by dozens of screams as a green-and-yellow dragon, a pink-and-yellow dragon, something on fire, and a bunch of other things fell out of the sky and crash-landed into the nearby valley.

_Zzzop!_

The TV sparked as Patch and a bird tumbled out of it, with the TV practically hacking up what looked like quicksilver and dimming partially, leaving two very dazed (and in the case of the bird, _very_ relieved) pokemon.

Jenny was confused.

 

* * *

 

With everyone safely recovered, and the virtual world having had the metaphorical wind knocked out of it, a small squad of does-it-really-matter-who was sent back in with special devices and whatsits, taking control of the small virtual realm and leaving it in the hands of the Center Island denizens. Over the years, it would be built up into a massive series of simulations and levels, with nary an evil plot in sight.

While clearing out the virtual realm, it turned out that the draconic monster had been some sort of mutated amalgamate put in there from the real world. Even though it was definitely dead, its corpse still carried a signature of the Hubverse’s chaotic magics – it must have come from there.

They never found anything from level five.

Although he’d been spawned as a wholly-digital construct, Murkrow was somehow bestowed with a physical body upon escaping that realm. He wouldn’t be fully “real” until an exact year from then, but he didn’t even _need_ to be. This was more than enough.

After the adventure he’d been on, Patch’s ego seemed to die down for a bit, and he and Murkrow even formed Team Isnoshock, with Patch as the leader, Murkrow as the partner, and (eventually) an eccentric Chatot as the third wheel. Unfortunately… Patch still had severe spotlight issues, and having to _share_ said spotlight eventually lead him to abandon the Center Island denizens entirely and declare himself a supervillain, world domination plans and all.

He got soundly beaten after a few escapades and was never really seen ever again.

Over the next year, Murkrow, Chatot, an occasional ally in the form of a Shaymin, and a shy rookie Starly would go on to become one of the Hubverse’s greatest hero teams. In the end, it wouldn’t be the _only_ way they would influence history…

...but that’s a tale for another day.


End file.
